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Aftermarket AirIntake, Worth it?

Kingsford

By Kingsford
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Kingsford

Kingsford

Posted
Posted

Alright so I have been toying with the idea to put a K&N Cold Air Intake into my truck for a long time now.

 

For those of you who aren't familiar with my truck yet, its a 2005 F-150 STX 4.2L. So my question is, would it be worth it from a performance, gas saving and money saving stand point?

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mbreyer

mbreyer

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Posted
:2thumbs::2thumbs::2thumbs: Go with volant powercore. i love mine it woke up my duals more and gave me some fuel increase. For my truck it was best in torque/hp gains across the rpm spectrum. Also its a dry filter so no worries of the MAF fouling. Watch out for which k/n you get the aluminum is shiny looking but actually heats the air inside and defeats the purpose. You got questions i got answers because i just spent the last two years doing so much research on parts and accessories its rediculous.
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mbreyer

mbreyer

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same here also i got tuned as well but before it was worth it for throttle response and seat o pants feel. I dont know so much about ford because they are my enemy(im brainwashed chevy fan for life because my dad built them) but a truck is a truck so do exhaust intake then tune and you will not be sorry:rockon:

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savi01

savi01

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Agreed with above posts, just a simple new intake won't do you much other than give you a bit more noise. You'll need to have a tune to take full advantage of it. What I did, to save money and just get more sound than performance, is replace my stock intake tube with an Airraid MIT, and got a aFE Dry drop in filter, kept the stock box. K&N is overrated IMO, and Volant is what I would suggest as well if you have the money to spend.

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BrianT

BrianT

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Don't bother, think about at what RPM you need to run at to make an intake worth while! Unless your running at 3k+ all day you'll never see a gain in perfoemance. Have you checked to see if the stock air box is standard on the 4.6 and 5.4 V8's? If they are the same your 6 will never need more air then that stock box can provide.

 

Edit: I'm running 46 psi in my Ram through the stock air box with a Pro Gaurd 7 AFE drop in filter. My filter minder never moves, the stock air box flows really well!!

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Chewy

Chewy

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Have you given the Gotts Mod any thought, a lot of Ford guy do it instead of the CAI's since it's essentially the same thing for a fraction of the price. Just a thought.

 

I bought a kit probably 10 or more years ago for my F150 (5.4L) that did basically that, plus added a mandrel bent connector between the TB and the MAF. Basically it got rid of the intake mufflers and made the inlet to the stock air box larger. It was cheaper than most of the other kits out there and it's worked great.

 

Remember, to take advantage of an intake upgrade, you have to be able to move the exhaust out quicker too... Garbage in, garbage out.

 

Best bet is to see what other 4.2 owners are doing... Is it worth the 200+ dollars.

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1anonly

1anonly

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Posted

Cold air induction systems are great, but it's more just an air filter in most cases. You could put an air filter that allows 1000 CFM of air to come through, but if your MAF only allows 600 CFM you're only going to get 600 CFM into the motor. Then after that it has to come out the motor. If your exhaust can only handle 500 CFM, then 500 CFM is coming in. You could have a huge intake, but it will only suck in what it can exhaust.

 

Make sense?

 

I found this out with my Corvette. I put a K&N filter on it and Corsa exhaust thinking I'd have a big HP gain. No, didn't happen. Once I changed my MAF I noticed the difference.

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SoCal SS

SoCal SS

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You'll show little, if any, performance improvement unless you have the PCM/ECM retuned to account for the increase in air that the new intake will provide.

 

I totally agree with this statement. CAI and exhaust can even cause worse power and fuel mileage numbers unless the tune is redone. When I got my Silverado SS in 06, I put a GMPP cold air intake and corsa sport exhaust on it. it was so so after those mods. After I did a dyno tune, it really woke the truck up. Total night and day diffrence. HP numbers went about almost 50 hp. The nice supprise was an increase in gas mileage.

 

Look into one. By far the best investment.

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Marylander

Marylander

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I'm taking what will probably be a bit of an unpopular view...

 

I really don't think A CAI is worth it unless it's part of a whole big engine build project. It just cost you $100 or more bucks, it may or may not get you any performance increase, (or it may actually decrease performance or mileage), it might cause electronic issues, and if you do go "stage 2" with a PCM retune that locks you into premium unleaded... are you really going to want to pay that extra cash every time you fill up? Gas is getting dear enough as it is.

 

I've put CAIs on many of my cars over the past 10-15 years, but looking back I really don't think I got any worthwhile value out of them. The only one that gave a slightly noticeable performance increase was the one in my Vette, but it's a street car and I've realistically never "needed" or exercised that little extra oomph that the $250 cost me.

 

Just my $0.02 :2thumbs:

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Team Adam's

Team Adam's

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Oh boy... so much I can say here.

 

I've had my vehicles used in a number of protoypes in the past and some companies "design" process isn't much to speak of. Its more for looks than performance:

 

Step 1 - pull out stock box

Step 2 - put large chunk of wood where stock box was

Step 3 - widdle away chunk of wood until you have the biggest box you can fit

Step 4 - shape a tube from box to throttle body

Step 5 - recreate in plastic

Step 6 - sell it for $300

 

Again, not being vehicle specific here, and maybe some of the systems designed in that manner are good for HP gains - but when I tested one of these popular brand intakes versus stock it actually proved to be robbing HP, not adding. So the stock box proved to be more efficient.

 

A lot of intakes are designed this way... no thought for the actual increases, just get a bigger box a bigger tube and it should produce bigger #'s right?

 

Wrong.

 

I've been part of the prototyping process on 3 vehicles and with 4 different companies. Of the 4:

 

1 produced a box that was actually less efficient than stock

2 produced a box that was = to, but no more efficient than stock

1 produced a box that netted a a small gain

 

Just make sure you choose a system that was designed using some thought to adding performance and not just dressing up the engine bay. Automotive manufactures employ some VERY well educated engineers to design these things. Thinking some guy in a speed shop knows more about airflow characteristics than an automotive engineer with a PhD on the topic is kind of silly.

 

Looks ≠ Performance. Sound ≠ performance.

 

Choose a system that actually pulls in COLD AIR. I've seen so many designs that eliminate the stock box and in turn introduce a crap load of heat... increased flow is worth nothing if the air charge is significantly hotter. In many cases heat soak is a bigger obstacle to overcome than just adding more air. Shielding the filter is one part of the equation, but also consider the heat conductivity of the material used. That tube is gonna be hit with hot air, what kind of material its made of and how well that material retains/dissipates heat will have an impact.

 

Also realize that there are not big gains to be had from an intake alone, tuning is almost absolutely required to take advantage of the increased airflow (if there is any) Simply bolting a new tube and box in place does not always translate to more power. Your stock control system is programmed to function within a range and if you do get a truly good CAI which increases flow/volume/charge density then it won't know what to do with the improvement. Example - the TBSS had MASSIVE knock and detonation issues with a CAI on it, the tune was REQUIRED to get the engine running right again.

 

Plus, most customer feedback on CAI's tends to be purely anecdotal, in the end its nothing more than placebo effect using the SOTP (seat of the pants) dyno which is hardly a precision tool. Manufacture dyno numbers are almost always inflated... intakes claiming 20+ hp gains are outright lies... expect 5-10 real hp gain as an upper echelon and even then without a tune thats expecting a lot. The type of dyno used and the way the car is dyno'd play into this. I've seen so many open air filter systems dyno tested with the hood up... sure it'll pull more air that way, but you won't drive that way will you?

 

Again, just my opinion based on past experiences and learning thru trial and error. Getting to see behind the curtain on some of these products opened my eyes to a lot. Not saying all intakes are snakeoil, but make sure to do tons of research before buying.

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Carolinaboy

Carolinaboy

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Posted
Have you given the Gotts Mod any thought, a lot of Ford guy do it instead of the CAI's since it's essentially the same thing for a fraction of the price. Just a thought.

 

:iagree:

 

I did the Gotts mod and I have had great results. Bill & Cory at Powerhungry performance have done studies of the 5.4L that the Gotts mod only had a minimal difference on a DYNO compared to IIRC K&N Setup

 

Been running mine for a year now and I love it. Made the truck sound a little bit better too

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IMADreamer

IMADreamer

Posted
Posted

If there is some sort of airbox mod you can do you can save yourself a ton of money then get a retune to take advantage of any added air flow not to mention just to clean up the factory tune which is awful on every car I've ever tuned. (over 50 cars btw)

 

I have only done one Ford F150 with a 4.6 and the stock tune was pretty sloppy on it. The owner had recently added a cold air intake and after my tune he said he felt a good bit of gain but I'm pretty sure most of that was just from cleaning up the stock tune.

 

My plea to all of you as a tuner is stay away from those crap canned tunes that just flash your ecu with a generic tune, yeah you might get a power gain but that tune is not for your specific car and mods. You need a tune that is for your car and your mods. Find someone with HP Tuners, EFI live or whatever and have it tuned the right way for your car. A good tune should take a couple hours, not a couple minutes. You are spending all this money modding your car right? Well why skimp on the tune?

 

/rant lol

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IMADreamer

IMADreamer

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Posted
Our trucks stock is SO SLUGGISH it's not even funny. But with the right tune it makes it so much better. Just overall much better to drive around

 

 

Most vehicles are like that. I'm not at all kidding when I say I'll bet I gained 30hp under the curve on my Vette just by tuning it.

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Chewy

Chewy

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Posted
I love my Vararam CAI. Only true intake that I know gets cold air.

 

Sent from my DROIDX using Tapatalk

 

I have the Vararam on my G8... My car is tuned FOR the Vararam and man, it runs like a sum buck for being a stock motor otherwise. 25MPG on the highway and about 19 average in mixed.

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3PedalMINI

3PedalMINI

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Posted

on minis the stock air box is so ridiculously restrictive that you gain 10hp by throwing it on. Ive had 2 mini's and both have had night and day difference by throwing it on. Then again this is worlds apart from your truck:lolsmack:

 

Im not kidding though, these things might as well be pulling air through a straw thats kinked over.

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